Microsoft offered an extended preview of its upcoming Windows 8 operating system at a conference on Tuesday, providing developers with a prototype Samsung tablet running a "pre-beta" version of the OS.

The Redmond, Wash., software giant's announcements at the Build conference in Anaheim, Calif., caused a stir, with some pundits prematurely heralding the downfall of Apple's iPad. Microsoft indicated that it will remain committed to its "no compromise" strategy of bringing a full-featured Windows operating system to the tablet form factor.

In an effort to foster early development for the platform, which is set to arrive next year, Microsoft gave each of the 5,000 attendees a prototype tablet, dubbed Windows 8 Developer Preview, that it had co-developed with Samsung. The Intel i5-based tablet came packed with Internet Explorer 10 and a host of apps developed by Microsoft interns.

The device is a re-tooled version of Samsung's Series 7 tablet, featuring a 1.6GHz processor, 11.6-inch screen, front and rear cameras, and HDMI port, USB port, microSD slot and a SIM-card slot. The companies also included a charging dock with USB, HDMI and Ethernet ports, a Bluetooth keyboard and a stylus pen. AT&T partnered up to offer a year of 3G service for the devices to Build attendees, though the free plan is capped at 2GB of data per month.

The company reminded developers that the Developer Preview, which has been called "pre-beta," is still a work in progress. "This is a pre-release product," the Associated Foreign Press reported Sinofsky as saying. "You saw some little snafus today; there are going to be more of them."

As demonstrated at the conference, Windows 8 draws from Microsoft's Windows Phone 7 unique tile interact for its Metro touch layer. "Icons are yesterdays way of representing apps, tiles are todays way of representing apps, said Microsoft manager Jensen Harris.

The Windows 8 prototype tablet has drawn immediate criticism for the inclusion of a cooling fan. "Fan noise is very noticeable, as is the heat coming out of the top vent," noted This is my next's Joanna Stern.

She also took issue with switching between the Metro and Desktop interfaces. "The whole user experience feels schizophrenic, with users having to jump back and forth between the two paradigms, each of which seem like they might be better off on their own," she wrote.

Stern also expressed disappointment that Microsoft had downplayed ARM architecture support during its presentation, favoring instead the x86 architecture. "A fast boot doesnt excuse the slow wake-up times compared to ARM-based cellphones and tablets," she said, adding that ARM received only a "token gesture" during a demo session.

For its part, Intel has struggled to build mobile processors capable of running in the low energy, low heat capacity needed for tablets. Interestingly enough, Google announced on Tuesday a partnership with Intel to bring its Android mobile operating system to the chipmaker's Atom processors. Apple had originally been rumored to be considering Atom chips for the iPad and iPhone, but the company eventually settled on a custom ARM-based solution.

Microsoft on Tuesday also further confirmed its plans for a Windows application store, similar to Apple's own App Store. ARM-based Windows 8 applications will only be available through the "Windows Store," which will also have the requirement that all submitted apps support the Metro interface.

An early build of Windows 8 had hinted that Microsoft was planning to make the software scalable across a variety of form factors. In June, the company offered a preview of the operating system, highlighting HTML5 and Javascript apps that will take advantage of the touch interface.

I understand an Apple site needs to spin this to give Apple a positive look, and in regards to Samsung, this is just getting shameless. But OTOH, having been running this developer preview (admittedly only for a couple hours), I absolutely love it. We'll see after a couple weeks when the new OS smell wears off, but it is faster than Win7 was on the same machine. I've installed iTunes, Flash, Office 2010, Java, Chrome, and Eclipse (Java dev tool), and everything has been running flawlessly. For a "pre-beta", I am absolutely floored. I can't believe I'm saying this, but so far so good Microsoft!

The most important question is how good is the Windows 8 software experience and can Windows 8 be ported to ARM? Microsoft can always find another company to provide better hardware. A tablet with a fan does sound lame.

So, let's do a flash forward... It's now October 1, 2015 and developers from all over the world are coming together for the monster 'Build' conference where Redmond is about to un-leash the first working version of Winders 88. Apple is about to release iPhone X as a milestone for achievement of IOS along with iPad 8. Microshaft revenue from ALL it's products is now about $60 billion a year... Flat... And Apple's is $ 500 billion... Up 62% from last year.... Oh, and their software still actually works.

I understand an Apple site needs to spin this to give Apple a positive look, and in regards to Samsung, this is just getting shameless. But OTOH, having been running this developer preview (admittedly only for a couple hours), I absolutely love it. We'll see after a couple weeks when the new OS smell wears off, but it is faster than Win7 was on the same machine. I've installed iTunes, Flash, Office 2010, Java, Chrome, and Eclipse (Java dev tool), and everything has been running flawlessly. For a "pre-beta", I am absolutely floored. I can't believe I'm saying this, but so far so good Microsoft!

I'm not a big MS fan by any means but I'd put my money on this 50 to 1 horse. I've said it a few times before... Google doesn't have to worry about Apple... it has to worry about MS. jmho

This looks like a great idea for a tablet or a tablet-as-a-pc-replacement but a stand-alone desktop? Terrible. The interface was not designed for a mouse and will be more difficult to use with a mouse.

A cooling fan on a tablet??? That nonsense aside, having full Windows available on a tablet in addition to a touch interface sounds like something the Windows community would love. I could see a Windows 8 tablet doing well if they can sell it for less than $500 and include a final version of the touch interface that doesn't suck. Microsoft clearly jumped the gun by demoing it pre-beta. That's the difference between Apple and everyone else: Apple first shows a product when the hardware and software are mostly polished. Other companies, like MS and Samsung, demo products that still look like crap because they are desperate for attention. Which of course backfires.

I couldn't help but laugh out loud several times while watching that video. That interface is horrendous... if people that write for a tech Web site can't use the interface reasonably well, how will this ever be something that people will want? (Aside from the hardcore anti-Apple crowd, of course.)

The iPad is doing well because the mass market wants a simple appliance that lets them do things like update Facebook and browse the Internet in a simple and predictable way. This Windows 8 abomination shows to me how Microsoft is just not understanding the market. Instead of creating a new, predictable interface paradigm focused on the simplicity of a tablet, they've simply slapped a touch-centric interface on top of a mouse/keyboard OS interface. I can't possibly imagine Grandma or some other non-technical person wanting to use this thing.

It's almost like Microsoft thought to themselves, "Windows is far too easy to use. We should change the Start menu into a full-screen menu of apps from which the user won't know how to escape."

Wow. Is microsoft really this out of touch? They still really don't get the tablet market do they?
The mass appeal of tablet market is NOT about the power user minority. It's about simplicity and accessibility to the majority of consumers who are intimidated by traditional overly complex computer interfaces. MS just can't help themselves. This is because their only angle on tablets is legacy desktop software. So predictable and sad.

"Building for the future?! They should be running around reacting to the present!" -John Moltz

Are you kidding me? Microsoft was doing tablet form factor PCs years before the iPad was a thought. There is nothing remotely similar to an iPad here.

I think the reference was to the Samsung hardware, not the Microsoft OS. The hardware they're testing it on is pretty much identical to the iPad in terms of physical appearance - albeit it's landscape by default.

Microsoft offered an extended preview of its upcoming Windows 8 operating system at a conference on Tuesday, providing developers with a prototype Samsung tablet running a "pre-beta" version of the OS.

With Apple's iOS-running iPad totally dominating the tablet market, the most challenging competition would be ONE, COHERENT ALTERNATIVE like Android.

But with Windows 7 Phone for Tablets and now Windows 8 Desktop soon to be running on Tablets (promising to provide "full-PC functionality" in Tablet form didn't they already try this back in 2000? Glad to see they learned their lesson), Android (bifurcating, "tri-furcating," etc. as each licensee in competition with each other has access to the Android source code and tries to put a differentiating "face" on their Tablet; with recent promises that webOS will be resurrected; with BlackBerry's Tablet OS (which requires running "BlackBerry Bridge" to sync with your BlackBerry smartphone not quite the same as iOS 4 or 5 running on your iPhone, iPod touch and iPad); with HTC announcing they're "shopping" to buy their very own proprietary Tablet OS (webOS? TRON? "Plan 9 touch"?), things couldn't be better for Apple and iOS devices.

Again, a single, coherent worthy alternativeMIGHT pose a challenge, but a proliferation of non-iOS mobile operating systems (one of them splintering so badly that they're buying a handset maker to try Apple's successful "single-purveyor" approach after trying the Microsoft DOS and Windows license-to-anyone-who'll-pay-us approach. Any guesses who I'm talking about? Anyone? Anyone?) makes alternatives to Apple iOS devices look scatterbrained, incoherent and the mobile OS abandonment and switching on the part of some companies looks capricious and doesn't exactly inspire confidence in consumers. "Will they switch to a different OS tomorrow and leave me in the lurch?" (Fortunately, there won't be a large number of people to "leave in the lurch" as Apple continues to, as iPad's fretful competitors put it, "iPod the Tablet market.")

So, by all means, more mobile OSes, PLEASE! More, More!MORE!

The iPad and iOS will progress as "the only game in town," the only choice that has its act together, has some "direction," some dependability.

The rest will look like The Seven (hopefully more) Dwarfs and "rudderless," like the Keystone Kops or The Three Stooges (I guess Microsoft would be "Moe"), except many more than "Three."

Actually I think a more "techie" tablet makes a lot of sense and windows stands a better chance than android, at least in business areas. I love my ipad but still can't work out why I really need it, I find myself taking it along for the hell of it sometimes. That's part of the genius, almost a new product paradigm. The windows one is probably more practical but I doubt it will translate into comparable sales. Good luck to them though, competition is good.

We understand that much, thanks. Point is that no-one wants active cooling on a tablet, and no-one knows how Windows 8 will run on slower hardware. The fact that Microsoft had Samsung build some kind of tablet prototype with an i5 suggests that running Windows 8 on ARM-based tableat hardware is not going to be fun in its current state.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ricardo Dawkins

The funny things is...this is just a developer platform...much like those G5 PowerMac were development platforms for the Xbox 360.

The funny thing is that a G5 PowerMac is actually very comparable to an xbox 360 in CPU performance (the 360 CPU is a stripped-down Power5 with 3 cores at 3 Ghz, adapted to trade in some general-purpose performance to increase peak floating point and cache performance). Even funnier is that we've all seen the big mess Microsoft ended up in with the first few generations of xbox 360 hardware: loud, unreliable, running too hot. It took them almost 5 years to get it right. If this Samsung 'developer platform' serves as an indication where W8 on tablets, things are not looking so great.

I'm not a big MS fan by any means but I'd put my money on this 50 to 1 horse. I've said it a few times before... Google doesn't have to worry about Apple... it has to worry about MS. jmho

+1 - If you've read a number of my posts, yes... I am a betting guy.

Said it before... and I'll say it again: MS is the one to watch. Slow out of the gate, but as with DOS/Windows, they WILL eventually catch up. Actually, they have no other recourse.

Can we all agree to switch out Apple for Google, as in "Google is DOOMED!", because my further bet is that Google halts active Android development as early as next Summer. They'll put their chips on Chrome, which they WONT open source. They'll realize that they are a one-trick pony, and will concentrate on search and ads. They will slide though, because I seriously doubt that MS will ship Win8 tablets defaulted to Google Search. Even IF the manufacturers default Google themselves, I expect that there will be some heated words and thrown chairs behind closed doors the next time MS meets up with them.

Funny, but I think Amazon will pick up the Android ball, and continue to run with it as a solid 3rd-place alternative. They'll work out something with Larry re: licensing, and pull the plug on anything re: open sourcing their work behind the scenes.

As for Sammy, they'll go full switch to Windows, dropping Android in the process. They will sully up their "trade dress" and "Apple-look" to include multiple stickers, multi-colored photo shots on their products, etc. Considering that it's not "really" about the tablet form-factor... it's about the whole bundle, most of which is a dead-on copy of Apple's.

PS. As much as I dislike MS... I am pulling for them on this one. Reality says that you can't get enterprise to switch "seriously" to Apple... or Android for that matter. I'm looking forward to integrating both Apple and MS products where necessary. It's been my bread-and-butter for years, and I have about 10 left before I can hang up my mouse

Knowing what you are talking about would help you understand why you are so wrong. By "Realistic" - AI Forum Member

I couldn't help but laugh out loud several times while watching that video. That interface is horrendous... if people that write for a tech Web site can't use the interface reasonably well, how will this ever be something that people will want? (Aside from the hardcore anti-Apple crowd, of course.)

The iPad is doing well because the mass market wants a simple appliance that lets them do things like update Facebook and browse the Internet in a simple and predictable way. This Windows 8 abomination shows to me how Microsoft is just not understanding the market. Instead of creating a new, predictable interface paradigm focused on the simplicity of a tablet, they've simply slapped a touch-centric interface on top of a mouse/keyboard OS interface. I can't possibly imagine Grandma or some other non-technical person wanting to use this thing.

It's almost like Microsoft thought to themselves, "Windows is far too easy to use. We should change the Start menu into a full-screen menu of apps from which the user won't know how to escape."

The iPad is for consumers i.e. your Grandma... AND small business. I've switched untold everyday home users, as well as many professionals (lawyers, architects, doctors, etc.).

However... big business, enterprise, etc. needs Windows and a tablet solution... that integrates with Windows. Period. Sorry. But that is what I am being told every single time I run up to a client with more than 50 people (here in Germany). As for the pro-sumer Geeks and anti-Apple crowd, that's just gravy.

Windows systems have always been clunkers in comparison to Apple, with a team of IT guys to keep it running. IT depts. will be jumping all over Win8. Mark my words. MS realizes this... and is catering to them. Realistic... and dare I say, good choice IMHO.

Windows anything is NOT for your Grandma... without "you" around.

Knowing what you are talking about would help you understand why you are so wrong. By "Realistic" - AI Forum Member

The iPad is for consumers i.e. your Grandma... AND small business. I've switched untold everyday home users, as well as many professionals (lawyers, architects, doctors, etc.).

However... big business, enterprise, etc. needs Windows and a tablet solution... that integrates with Windows. Period. Sorry. But that is what I am being told every single time I run up to a client with more than 50 people (here in Germany). As for the pro-sumer Geeks and anti-Apple crowd, that's just gravy.

Windows systems have always been clunkers in comparison to Apple, with a team of IT guys to keep it running. IT depts. will be jumping all over Win8. Mark my words. MS realizes this... and is catering to them. Realistic... and dare I say, good choice IMHO.

Windows anything is NOT for your Grandma... without "you" around.

^^So true.

I guess the "so hot now, growing, everyone wants a slice"-table market is not just about targeting consumers.

But sounds a bit like pharmacists celebrating the spread of a disease.

Quote:

Originally Posted by ThePixelDoc

[...]Can we all agree to switch out Apple for Google, as in "Google is DOOMED!"™, because my further bet is that Google halts active Android development as early as next Summer. They'll put their chips on Chrome,

...and that would be ARM or Intel?

I've accomplished my childhood's dream: My job consists mainly of playing with toys all day long.

With Apple's iOS-running iPad totally dominating the tablet market, the most challenging competition would be ONE, COHERENT ALTERNATIVE like Android.

But with Windows 7 Phone for Tablets and now Windows 8 Desktop soon to be running on Tablets (promising to provide "full-PC functionality" in Tablet form didn't they already try this back in 2000? Glad to see they learned their lesson), Android (bifurcating, "tri-furcating," etc. as each licensee in competition with each other has access to the Android source code and tries to put a differentiating "face" on their Tablet; with recent promises that webOS will be resurrected; with BlackBerry's Tablet OS (which requires running "BlackBerry Bridge" to sync with your BlackBerry smartphone not quite the same as iOS 4 or 5 running on your iPhone, iPod touch and iPad); with HTC announcing they're "shopping" to buy their very own proprietary Tablet OS (webOS? TRON? "Plan 9 touch"?), things couldn't be better for Apple and iOS devices.

Again, a single, coherent worthy alternativeMIGHT pose a challenge, but a proliferation of non-iOS mobile operating systems (one of them splintering so badly that they're buying a handset maker to try Apple's successful "single-purveyor" approach after trying the Microsoft DOS and Windows license-to-anyone-who'll-pay-us approach. Any guesses who I'm talking about? Anyone? Anyone?) makes alternatives to Apple iOS devices look scatterbrained, incoherent and the mobile OS abandonment and switching on the part of some companies looks capricious and doesn't exactly inspire confidence in consumers. "Will they switch to a different OS tomorrow and leave me in the lurch?" (Fortunately, there won't be a large number of people to "leave in the lurch" as Apple continues to, as iPad's fretful competitors put it, "iPod the Tablet market.")

So, by all means, more mobile OSes, PLEASE! More, More!MORE!

The iPad and iOS will progress as "the only game in town," the only choice that has its act together, has some "direction," some dependability.

The rest will look like The Seven (hopefully more) Dwarfs and "rudderless," like the Keystone Kops or The Three Stooges (I guess Microsoft would be "Moe"), except many more than "Three."

The more the merrier!

Android is anything BUT coherent... and if I catch your drift regarding your challenge (Google)... you know that.

MS is the only one big enough and with enough hooks in the enterprise, to be a challenge. However, I don't consider them a challenge at all, because:

1) people are NOT going to go back to MS from iOS or OSX;
2) they will be FORCED to use the cheaper alternative at work... as they are today;
3) no one, but NO ONE, will ever say they "Love Windows" and mean it, after experiencing the ease of use of iOS or OSX.

In summary, it's an "enterprise" AND "consumer" market... no VERSUS (vs.) here. MS has one, Apple has the other.

Search and ads: Google... but dwindling steadily.

Consumer store front: Amazon is not doing badly, and I expect them to gain. That does not mean that Apple is losing or about to. It is well known that the App Store and iTunes are are a big part of Apple's eco-system and pull... but it is their hardware that makes them the big bucks. I don't see that changing (much) in the future.

Knowing what you are talking about would help you understand why you are so wrong. By "Realistic" - AI Forum Member

I understand that the whole "Intel tablet with a fan" is a temporary thing until the actual product releases, but since you are already showing an admittedly half as-... er, "alpha" version of the software, why don't go the full monty and give away prototype tablets with an actual (albeit not optimal) ARM CPU? Even if they don't perform as well as the (ultimately) shipping product, as a developer I would be more interested in testing Windows on the yet-uncharted ARM territory. Testing Win8 on an x86, any one can do with their current PCs (albeit without touch screen, I'll admit).

Quote:

Originally Posted by monstrosity

So how much will these pieces of crap cost? Considerably more than an iPad at a guess.
This has got fail written all over it.

I don't think that matters; businesses will pay anything to get their Windows fix.

I've accomplished my childhood's dream: My job consists mainly of playing with toys all day long.

I love the Metro UI scheme, I think that its a stroke of genius. My personal opinion, of course.

But Windows 8 is a very poor application of such a nice interface.
Nothing about W8 or the test hardware makes any sense to me.

Just watched the video with the sound muted (in the office) and I can spot issues a mile away. MS wont change the UI as well, we all know they wont.

-Start Button is now the trigger for the tablet Interface, why?
-Start Screen is not mouse friendly in the slightest. Why make it the new start "menu" then?
-Windows Desktop UI looks no more finger friendly than its predecessors.
-Panels you swipe from the left just ads more clutter
-Touch/Swipe application switcher is incredibly inefficient when a large number of applications are open
-(not in the video but previously mentioned) Explorer with the ribbon bar. Lets combat this clutter with /more buttons!/

On the hardware side of things, I know its only a test/dev unit, but its:
-too heavy
-too hot
-too noisy
-too big

Not really sure what market Samsung/MS have been shooting for, but what they have right now looks like a laptop after a car crash.

Even without the fan (pauses to keep face straight) is anyone going to buy this POS ?

There must be some smart people at Microsoft and at Samsung. So why is it all they can come up with is junk like this ? They can't even make a product that gives the iPad a run for its money, let alone bring something new and innovative to the tablet form. By the time this hits the market Apple will have moved on, and MS won't even have reached the point where the puck had been.

This must be an all time low for Microsoft and Samsung: it should never have been revealed to the public.